Royal Navy has pre-deployed autonomous minehunters to Strait of Hormuz, says defence minister Luke Pollard

Luke Pollard said that the government will today announce a multimillion-pound missile contract for drone interceptors, as the spotlight remains firmly on the strait amid the Iran conflict.

During an interview with Sky News, he said: “Today, we’re announcing a new multimillion-pound missile contract for drone interceptors to help shoot down Iranian drones and other threats to our forces.”

He was also asked whether the UK would deploy military assets to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and said Britain has already “pre-deployed” autonomous Royal Navy minehunters.

Sign up for The Week in Defence with Freddie Webb - our newsletter rounding up the sector’s must-read stories

He added that reopening the strait “means a freedom of navigation for all vessels and no tolls to pay, as Iran may be hinting at”.

This week the Royal Navy took charge of a new autonomous mine-hunting ship - Adventure. It is the second of four remote-controlled boats that will make up the Maritime Mine Counter Measures programme.

The navy said that Adventure was a “primary system” which was “capable of carrying a payload comprising other un-crewed survey/mine warfare systems”.